"But it would be wrong to sink down to their level!" Chartreuse exclaimed.
Kenna yawned, full from dinner (well, not really full, but gassy was like the same thing, right?). She hated beans, which she had voiced multiple times. No one seemed to care though, because "not only are they good for you, but they're easy to can, or keep raw."
"How much longer?" she groaned to Brook.
The other woman shrugged and watched the debate impassively.
"I'm going to diiiiiiie," Kenna moaned. "This is boring and unnecessary."
"Have some respect," a scrawny man sitting behind her said lowly. "We're talking about life and death here."
"The life and death of aliens," Kenna corrected. "Who actually cares?"
"Do you three have something to contribute?" Banner asked.
The semicircle of people turned to look at Kenna, Brook, and the man.
"This woman is a dreadful, inconsiderate woman," the man said, finger pointed accusingly at Kenna. "She has no respect for our lives, or any life, at that."
Kenna rolled her eyes. "Oh, please."
"Perhaps you'd like to contribute," Banner said quietly. "We'd like to hear your opinion."
Kenna huffed. "They're aliens. What do we know about aliens, anyway? We know that they took us from our homes, and taunted us by creating exact replicas of our bedrooms. We know that they put us in a maze, made us walk for hours, and then attacked us with plants. Then they gave us that horrible tasting medicine, said it would fix us, and it killed Selina and her child." Kenna bravely dared to speak of the thing they never spoke of: "There were seven buildings. All different heights, towering above us. As we were running away, down that disgusting field, a building exploded and the whole thing crumbled down. And there was ash everywhere. But before there was ash, there was people. All those dead bodies were raining down on us."
Kenna stopped speaking and looked around. Some faces were stricken with fear, some with sorrow, and some with hatred. The fire elongated the shadows on Banner's face and she couldn't tell his expression.
She breathed deeply and continued, "If they're capable of blowing up a building filled with their people and ours, who knows what else they can do? They might not have weapons, or be particularly strong, but we can admit that they are smart, and smart is all you need to build a bomb."
Still, silence.
"So I vote that we avenge our friends," she clarified. "We've been through enough, and I think the...the Lii should know that."
Banner nodded, slowly. "And you two?"
"No," that man said. "This is wrong. I don't care who they are, no one deserves to die."
Brook spoke with honesty and certainty, as she always did. "Their deaths might be the only way to gain leverage and find a way home. Fear is strong. But we have to control the fear, because too much of it will have our enemies fighting back. That would result in casualties on our end. I say we do this execution, and then lay low for a while."
The man sputtered angrily. "You're all insane!"
"I think we're being perfectly logical," Kenna sniffed. She crossed her arms.
"You're not," a new voice said.
Kenna glanced at who was speaking, even though she didn't need to. After all, Ethan was the only Brit in the group. She turned her eyes away stubbornly, preparing to ignore him. She could feel him staring at her, and her gaze drifted back.
